Why Am I NOT afraid of GOD?

Few years ago, my friend Rajsekhar introduced me to his family: “This is Mr.Uday Pai, my good friend and very god fearing person…”

Later, I asked him: “Raj, who told you I am afraid of god?”

“Everyone is god fearing. If we do not fear of god, how can we live in this world?”

“Human beings fear some living things which can cause us harm -Snakes, Rabies Dog, Tigers, Terrorists, Thieves, Dacoits, etc. Man is also afraid of Thunder, Storm, Tsunami etc. But how can one be afraid of god? Is God a Person who causes considerable damages to you?”

“He is powerful, omnipotent, all-pervading….”

“Hmm…Okay. Forget the god for time being. Whom you are afraid of as of now?”
“I am afraid of a terrorist…”

“Have you ever felt respect, love or worship towards a terrorist?”

“No…I hate them.”

“Are you a fan of any sportsman or film star?”

“I am a hardcore fan of Sachin Tendulkar”

“What do you want to do with Sachin?”

“I wish I could take a photograph along with him, get him signed in an autograph…”

“That means, you want to be near him”

“Yes, I wish I could touch him and handshake with him”

“Which movie you wanted to see the most in your life? I mean, which movie you eagerly waited to see?”

“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”

“Why?”

“I heard lot about it. I have been seen few clippings and photograph – that was amazing…”

“So you felt curiosity. Jijnasa. The desire to know or see that movie. So you went to see it…”

“Yes. I liked it very much…Seen it several times…”

“That means, you will feel adoration only when you feel the “wow” factor. Adoration won’t come from fear. Anybody would want to run away from the fear. Nobody can worship fear. A human being won’t even want to remember something fearful. Adoration will lead to worship or devotion, not fear.”

“Hmmm. I understood when you started itself. You mean to say nobody should fear god.”
“Yes, until and unless god is a brutal tyrannical mafia king or inhuman terrorist.”
“I don’t understand.”

“There are many concepts about god. Broadly it can be divided into two – (1) God is kind hearted and loving personality or (2) God is like a warlord, mafia king, dacoit chief etc. He is angry, revengeful, wrathful etc. Which one do you want to follow?”
“Of course the first one…”

“Swami Vivekananda said devotion motivated by fear is the lowest kind of devotion. Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life, he said. Fear has to be the opposite of God because it is the opposite of love. If a God wants you to live in fear of Him, that means such God is always afraid you will stop worshipping him. Do you really want to worship such an insecure god?”
(http://udaypai.in/isnt-single-god-theory-ridiculous-and-fa…/)

How can you love somebody who threatens you that if you don’t follow his commandments, you will be roasted in the hell? The god, if really exists, would not want us to fear him or her. A necessity to instill fear in others is due to one’s own feelings of insecurity, inferiority, and fear of losing influence. Unless one admits that god exhibits these feelings then he cannot logically say that god wants us to fear him.

God Fearing people are scared of punishments, bad luck, poverty, fear of future… the list is endless. They approach God out of fear. They do not pray because of devotion instead fear is forcing them to pray.

If God created Man, why did he give the man the freedom to sin or not? Is it some sort of game for him that the sinner can be sent for ever to Hell? Is he deriving pleasure from sending his creation to hell and heaven? Why does he behave like wrathful prison guards waiting to pounce on errant wards.

“Then how come most number of people is god-fearing?” Raj asked.

“How do the street rowdies make a living? They instill fear among people and collect money from neighborhoods and shops as ‘protection’ money. The priesthood is no way different from them. They threaten you showing a story of a wrathful god. The religion has the necessity for ‘god fearing’ since instilment of fear was a major aspect of the culture that such religions grew out of. Fear of God is the only way the idea of organized religion can be propagated. It is obviously their business model.”

Fear is the root of religions. When man did not understand, the cause of natural occurrences and calamities, he assumed that there must be more powerful individuals behind them and started doing all kinds of rituals to please them. (See http://udaypai.in/who-created-the-universe-is-there-a-crea…/) This was the first god.

“So you don’t fear God”

“The followers of Sanatan Dharma NEVER EVER fear god, instead when they are afraid of something, they remember god.” I said.

Our prayer is: Tvame va mAtA cha pitA tvameva, Tvameva bandhus cha sakhAtvamev, Tvameva vidyA draviNam tvameva, Tvamev sarvam mama deva deva (You Truly are my Mother And You Truly are my Father, You Truly are my Relative And You Truly are my Friend, You Truly are my Knowledge and You Truly are my Wealth, You Truly are my All, My God of Gods.) God is your friend, philosopher, guide, lover, child… God is available in any form but not in the form of oppressor or punisher.

If you are a Sanatan Dharmi and you fear God, then it is time to go back to basics. For him, there is no God who rules by fear. God does not reside in the heaven and decide on punishments. God does not distribute good luck and bad luck. God does not sit up and distribute poverty and wealth.

“It is not God (male) that created us in His image. It is we humans, who created God in our image (enhanced as super persons in some religions). The concept of depended upon the mind-set of the creator. An insecure warlord has fear. Such concept of god has fear in it. Only such people can make God an autocrat, who wields the whip for every minor misdemeanor.”

“Hmmm. Uday, at least you should agree that there is one good thing about god-fearing. People tend to remain morally and ethically on the right side.”

“On the contrary, there is a huge psychological and theoretical flaw in that. Those who propogate “god-fearing” concept also provide a solution – you can repent or bribe the god! They say you can do all sorts of ‘sins” (another concept) with the assurance that you can repent in the end and all will be forgiven…”

“Ah, yes. I never thought it that way. In fact, you can repent either by giving money to religious abodes, performing some rituals or funding terrorism…”he said. “You said God doesn’t punish us. He is loving, caring and with you all the time. Then who gives you punishments?”

“You should take up responsibility of his action (Karma). It is said the memories in the consciousness keeps the record of all actions (both good and bad) done during that life. This is added to any balance karma from previous births. Ultimately one has to settle all accounts by one (or many) rebirth(s). The good does not cancel the bad. In a rebirth one may enjoy comfortable life (reward for previous good) and have miseries and hardship (punishment for sins). It is a simple theory that has universal appeal.”

All things – animate and inanimate – are manifestation of God. There is nothing but god. So what are you afraid of?

Even when you lock the door and sit inside the room, you will pray to god – that means you believe that no barriers, concrete walls or lock can stop him. That means the God represents absolute freedom. You have freedom to behave as is with the God. For, God is the best friend at the time of sorrow. God is the light during the fearful darkness. God is something with motherly love. God cannot be a terror.” (Read:Interview with Krishna http://udaypai.in/interview-with-krishna/)

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